Cameroonian selected to curate OCAD U new International Residency program

February 23, 2020

The first time Bonaventure Ndikung saw a Black person portrayed positively on television was in 1998 shortly after moving to Germany from Cameroon to pursue Biochemistry studies.

Late Nigerian Okwui Enwezor’s appointment as the Artistic Director & Curator of Documenta II made news headlines as he was the first non-European to curate the exhibit highly regarded for its post-colonial geographic expression of art.

“That was the first instance I saw a Black person on TV that wasn’t a dictator or someone suffering from some  sort of illness or just been portrayed negatively,” said Ndikung who is the first curator of the Ontario College of Art & Design (OCAD) University International Curators Residency (ICR) program. “It was also the first time I heard the word ‘curator’ and that registered with me.”

Though having an interest in Art History, he was in Germany to study Science.

“I had to do what my parents sent me there to do,” Ndikung said. “I couldn’t deviate.”

After completing a PhD in Biotechnology in 2006, he used some of his earnings working in the field to finance an art space.

SAVVY Contemporary – The Laboratory of Form Ideas was established in Berlin a decade ago as an independent, non-commercial space for visual and performing artists and curators.

Every two months, an artist from around the world is invited to address arts, science, sociology or philosophy issues with the aim of fostering dialogue between ‘Western art’ and ‘non-Western art’ and stimulating critical discourse on the development of contemporary art as well as on positions of art in the Diaspora.

The Curator-at-Large for Documenta 14 in Athens and Kassel and Guest Curator of the 2018 Dak’Art Biennele in Senegal, Ndikung learnt of the ICR program through OCAD U Galleries Executive & Artistic Director Francisco Alvarez.

“I have enough on my plate and I was hesitant to apply,” said the Curator of the Finland Pavilion at the 2019 Venice Biennale, Guest Professor in Curatorial Studies & Sound Art at the Stadelschuke in Frankfurt and Artistic Director of the 12th Recontres de Bamako African photography show last year. “I only agreed to do so after learning that it’s a good opportunity.”

From a list of about 30 candidates compiled by an internal committee at OCAD U, five candidates were invited to make a detailed submission of a project to be done at the university.

“The criteria included innovation, artistic experience and curatorial achievements as well as being a good fit with the priorities and principles of OCAD U which is Canada’s oldest and largest university of art, design and new media,” said Alvarez.

Bonaventure was selected based on his proposal, ‘The Cochlea: Sonic by Nature’, which will explore the role of sound and sonority in a world saturated with visual images.

The three-phase program started with Ndikung coming to Canada for the first time earlier this month for his extended residency at OCAD U. The second phase will be the presentation of an original exhibition curated by him at Onsite Gallery in early 2022 followed by the exhibition that will tour internationally.

“The opportunity to interact closely with innovative international curators will enhance the learning experience for OCAD U students and our community while heightening international awareness of Toronto as a vibrant contemporary arts community,” said OCAD U President & Vice-Chancellor Dr. Sara Diamond. “It will build opportunities abroad for Toronto artists. We must take our talent out to the world.”

Partners in Art is supporting the residency.

“Dr. Ndikung’s international experience and vision will be an incredible asset for Toronto’s multicultural landscape and will also help promote the work of Canadian artists globally,” noted the organization’s Co-President Antonella Vergati.

The new challenge excites Ndikung who is the Artistic Director of the 12th quadrennial Sonsbeek exhibition in September in The Netherlands and the author of ‘In a While or Two We Will Find the Tone: Essays & Proposals, Curatorial Concepts and Critiques’ and ‘Those who are Dead are not Ever Gone’.

“I am interested in the African Diaspora and the African Diaspora of Canada is as important as any other,” he said. “It is still very much limited in terms of like not only visibility, but a paucity of artists and I have an opportunity to do some proper research here and connect. Making an exhibition is creating a context, putting people in conversation with each other, understanding and analyzing socio-political studies in which we find ourselves in, setting the present within a larger historical narrative and creating spaces for different epistemologies beyond the kind that has been forced on us. This is what exhibition making is.”

Ndikung singled out Enwezor, who died last year at age 55, as one of the curators who inspired him.

“In being great, Okwui carved a space for narratives that were always there, but were supressed,” the former Associate Professor at Muthesius University Kiel said. “He put within the arts a very important post-colonial discourse, especially with his Documenta II. A curator is like a disc jockey in that he is someone with sensibility of keeping people on the dance floor. Okwui was that and more.”

Bonaventure Ndikung

Still grieving the sudden death of his father in the United States on January 2, Ndikung recalled the significant impact his parents has had on his life.

The family patriarch was an Anthropologist and voracious reader.

“He collected books and that was how I learnt about Dr. Ivan Van Sertima who was a brilliant intellectual and someone who understood history and Cheikh Anta Diop,” said Ndikung. “At age 14, I read ‘How Europe Underdeveloped Africa’ by the late Dr. Walter Rodney. Our home was a reservoir for primary literature. There is a library at SAVVY with books and journals from my father’s collection, including ‘Abbia: Cameroon Cultural Review’ that was first published in 1962.

In his 14 years of primary and secondary school in Cameroon, Ndikung wasn’t exposed to an art class and the city – Bamenda -- in which he was raised didn’t have a museum.

“The interesting thing though is that art was still omnipresent even though there was an absence of structures to enable the facilitation of the making of art,” he said

The second of five siblings left Cameroon with about Can$200 to pursue post-secondary studies in Germany which is a popular destination for international students as public universities don’t charge tuition fees for Bachelor’s and Master’s programs.